Best way to have Dev site updated with live site information?

[Thom Tyler]

Hi guys,

Not sure if I am being stupid or what, but I am trying to work on a Dev version of an existing site in preparations for some big updates I'm working on, but don't want my users to be unsettled by the changes whilst it's "Work in progress"

Is there an easy way to have the Dev site kept up-to-date with posts being made on the live site? Ideally I don't want to have to do the work twice.

My previous dev site work involved me taking a dump of the Live site and working on that. The problem was, when I finished getting it how I wanted and 100% working as expected, the data was all out of date. I then had to re-do the design changes and forum layouts AGAIN on the live site with the up to date posts and threads.

Is there an easy way I can have one DB update another, without the risk of something breaking on the dev site taking down the live site?

Thanks,

 

[Chris D]

Everything is database driven, so effectively if you're working on a dev site using data from the live site, you're basically performing all of the work on the live site.

What correlation do posts and other data have with designing a style? It seems a bit overkill to have the data completely in sync.

Do as you were doing before, then finally export your style and import it to the live site.

 

[Thom Tyler]

Everything is database driven, so effectively if you're working on a dev site using data from the live site, you're basically performing all of the work on the live site.

What correlation do posts and other data have with designing a style? It seems a bit overkill to have the data completely in sync.

Do as you were doing before, then finally export your style and import it to the live site.

Hey Chris,

It's not just the style, It's re-jigging of forums etc, new sections. So bascially I was after having the Live Site updating the "Dev" Site with posts, thus when the re-structure was done, along with the style and some features it would be good to go, rather than having to master it on dev site, and repeat all the work on the live site, thus incurring Downtime.

Maybe that makes a bit more sense. It's late, I'm tired and I'm CRAAAZY!

I guess I was hoping there was a way to "Feed" information into the dev site from the live site, but keeping them separate entities.

 

[feldon30]

Unfortunately there's no easy way to set up a Live/Dev environment where you can just swap things around. I'm not sure why forum software has never gotten on this bandwagon.

I guess you could set up entirely new subforums which are hidden from the public and when you get all the permissions setup, then mass move all the posts from the old to the new. Or you can just make the changes piecemeal and readers will see changes as they happen. It might not be so bad if you can roll out the changes in under an hour.